At the peak of his music career Collins Majale popularly known as Colonel Mustapha would earn close to a million.

His current state is however a total opposite of the man who used to pocket such a hefty salary, especially when life wasn’t that expensive.

The legendary rapper recently made headlines on social media after a video of him working at a construction site went Viral. He came out to admit that he was struggling to make ends meet but he had never wanted his struggles to be known.

Mustapha dropped hits like swing swing and Tuendelee ama tusiendelee that gave him a big stage name. He worked with other known rappers like Robah and Nyashinski under a music group called kleptomaniax.

The group later split up and Colonel Mustapha landed a luxurious gig to work as a copywriter at Scanad. The job saw him pocket Kshs250,000 monthly.

“I was a copywriter getting Ksh 250,000 every month. And then, I also believed that it didn’t hurt to present a jingle idea to any of the client services within whatever account at any agency, so I was a supplier” said the rapper in an interview.

Writing jingles for different brands gave him an additional Kshs700,000 earnings, totalling his monthly wages  to 950,000 shilling. He however did not enjoy the lucrative pay as it ended up creating debts.

“In a month I would write at least ten jingles for different brands and it would give me let’s say, KSh 700,000 extra. Money was never the issue but I never saw that money because my spirituality wasn’t lit. That money ended up creating more debts” Mustapha said.

The Lenga stress hit maker explained that his woes started when he offended a senior person at Scanad and that cost him his job.

“There were people who were giving the client a raw deal at that time. I said something I shouldn’t have said, or rather I said it innocently and it offended one of the bosses,” he disclosed.

At the time of his firing, he was addicted to women and alcohol,  his excessive spending saw him amass huge debts running into millions and soon after he was rendered bankrupt. He was unable to pay school fees for his daughter that she had to stay home for three months.

Trouble did not end there as KPLC were next on his sleeve, they disconnected electricity at his home citing huge pending bills. Later auctioneers raided his home taking away his car and title deeds.

The rains of trouble continued pouring down on him after his mother was diagnosed cancer. To support her and his family, Mustafa ended up being a construction.